Thursday, July 17, 2014

Book Review: What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding

I can't decide how I feel about this book. It was initially off-putting as author Kristin Newman immediately jumped into her sexual escapades around the globe. It reminded me of twentysomethings who think it's cool to brag about "that time I was so wasted," or "I was so drunk," etc. But instead, it was Kristin boasting about all the men she slept with in various foreign countries. I don't consider myself that prudish, but there were times when it seemed like she was trading sex for a place to stay or a ride when she needed one.

But her writing won me over and soon I was caught up in the adventures and locales she described. As a writer for several sitcoms, she had the time and the money to spend on periods of extended travel and her stories were entertaining and funny. It was easy to see how she made a living entertaining people with humor.

Then I'd teeter back to not liking her. Maybe it was jealousy in part because I'm more aligned with the "people who were breeding" in my twenties and early thirties while she was globe-trekking. (Is it my imagination or is her book title purposely offensive?) I can admit that a part of me wishes I'd been as wild, carefree and uninhibited as she was. Then I remember who I am, and that I'm not an extrovert who gloms onto strangers and takes them up on their offers to fly halfway around the world to stay at their place. That's just not me.

But I loved the adventures and the travel descriptions. So I teetered back to liking the book again.

Overall, I'd have to say I liked the book. It kept me reading and made me drool with envy. Unfortunately, Kristin's sexual romps were distracting in what was otherwise a great travel memoir.